


Seasons

by findafight



Series: Jadekat Week [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Sburb Session, F/M, Feelings, First Kiss, Humanstuck, Jadekat Week, Karkat Needs a Hug, karkat and kanaya are bros, look at some of that teen angst, wow fun times, you silly butts really need to kiss
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-27
Updated: 2014-02-27
Packaged: 2018-01-14 00:09:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1245418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/findafight/pseuds/findafight
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>You meet her in spring.</p><p>She worms her way into our heart throughout the year and you think that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad thing if you ended up loving her. (It'd be fan-fucking-tastic if she loved you back)</p>
            </blockquote>





	Seasons

**Author's Note:**

> Day 3 prompt for jadekat week: seasons. (woah look at my originality for the title) 4000 words later and here we are.  
> wowie wow. big ol' thanks to Al and J for reading my dumb drafts, you guys rock. hope you all enjoy this!

You meet her in spring.

She’s giggling with a few of her friends and you are being dragged bodily towards the table by one Kanaya Maryam, because you "were going to meet her girlfriend's friends" because you "can't keep bugging only her".

So you stay at the table with the odd-ball group. Kanaya's girlfriend is sitting poised and delicately near the edge of the table and you wonder how anyone could look like that at a shitty cafeteria table. She smiles when she spots the two of you making your way through the tables in the cafeteria, “Rose, we are” Kanaya gave you a subtle jab in the side, “ _Finally_ here to meet your friends”

“Hello, Kanaya.” She nods at you, “Karkat.” Rose gestures towards the rest of the group at the table. “The obnoxious one with the sunglasses is my dear twin, David” she rolled her eyes when a blonde guy wearing a pair of aviators starts to protest that first, it was Dave not fucking David that’s stupid and he, in fact, is not obnoxious, she is with her wizard porn and ridiculously correct grammar and you seriously reconsidered why you haven’t absconded out of this already.

Rose talks over her brother that is still ranting about something completely off topic and you are pretty sure you just heard him say smuppet and why the hell are you still here. “This is John Egbert, and his sister Jade Harley.” she waves her hand towards the other two people sitting at the table; a tall guy with big shoulders and blue eyes that’s laughing at Dave (which you admit is a good start, anyone who was laughing at that hipster was alright in your book), and an even taller girl that is ginning and waving at you.

The family resemblance is pretty striking. The both have unruly black hair, a subtle over bite, and glasses; but their eyes were different. While John has a pleasant blue-grey, Jade had striking green that stand out from her dark complexion (and the different last names; what kind of siblings are they?)

You blink when she starts talking to you.

“Hey! I really like your name, Karkat! It’s interesting! Does it mean anything?”

You honestly don’t have anything to say. You never really thought about your name before.

“I don’t think so. Even if it did, I wouldn’t know. I’m a foster care kid.” Her face takes on an apologetic expression and shit. Fuck, why did you say that? That was stupid, it was dumb and stupid and you are a dick for mentioning foster care because you suck and you don’t want people’s pity.

“I’m sorry to hear that. Is it hard?”

You scowl (well, your scowl _deepens)_ at her. “Is what hard? You’ve gotta be more specific there, Harley.” First impressions were never your strong point.

“Oh! Umm, like moving around a lot, I guess. I’ve heard that that happens a lot for foster kids.” She looks a little taken aback, making her eyes go slightly wider behind her ridiculously large circular glasses.

Oh, that’s what she was wondering about, which you should have guessed because you have heard even more horror stories of foster care than would ever get to see the light of day. You could say you were one of the lucky ones. “Well, not really. I mean, I’ve just stayed with the same guy for years. He’s basically adopted me for reasons that I cannot fathom for all the fucks I gi-” you cut yourself off because Crabdad was great and, despite your vehement denial, you really did maybe, kinda, sorta, love him a little bit because he was the only family you ever knew. “Yeah. He’s actually really great, despite his obsession with sea food.”

She smiles at you, and you’re a little taken aback by how she can transition her face so quickly. “That’s really great! My dad just has an unnatural obsession with cakes and other baked goods.”

At that, John (who had since stopped laughing at Dave and they had engaged in what appears to be an argument over the quality of _National Treasure_ ) straightened and glared at Jade. “We do not speak of the cakes in public Jade I thought we agreed about this, you horrible sister.”

Jade makes a face at her brother “well at least I didn’t mention the ‘Batterwitch’”

And with that they dissolve into a sibling squabble, Dave tries to intervene but gets caught in his own metaphors, Rose and Kanaya share a look, and you are submerged deep into the world of these people that don’t make a lot of sense, but are inspiringly true to themselves.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s summer when you fall for her.

She shows up at your house on the hottest day of the year and declares that you are going frog hunting. You stare at her for a minute, confused as to 1)why she was asking _you_ to do this, 2) why frog hunting was the activity of choice, on the hottest day ever (when you’re pretty sure you will melt if you spend more than thirty seconds outside) no less, and 3) definitely not because she looked stunning in her ball cap, khaki shorts, and bright green tank, with her hair pulled into a pony tail that you can only assume is sticking out the back hole of the cap and the sun sort of illuminating her in the doorway of your dark home. Not that. Nope.

“Jade, why the fuck would you want to do that _today_? It’s gotta be at least forty goddamn degrees in the shade” you never were able to pull yourself from acting like you hated seeing her, but you’re pretty sure she saw right through you anyway. “And why would you want to do that with _me,_ anyway? I’m not exactly-” you shrug and wiggle your fingers a bit. She’s ginning goofily at you and it’s not distracting. “-dexterous with my fingers.”

She wiggles her eyebrows at you, “ooooohhhh, Mr. Vantas, would you like me to help you with your finger’s _dexterityyyy?_ ” and the way she smirks and laugh at the face you obviously made makes you think that somehow she was not talking about frog hunting.

You sigh. This girl was crazy but, hey, she was one of your best friends. “Whatever, Harley. Let’s just go and catch some frogs.” You slip on your shoes and push past her while simultaneously closing the door and begin walking down the sidewalk to the park nearby that has a decent sized pond.

She runs up behind you and nudges you to the side with her bare shoulder, “Hey! What happened to ‘ _it’s too fucking hot Jade, goddamn I’m going to melt Jade, for fucks sake Jaaaade.’_? Hmmm? HmMMM??”

“Well ex-fucking-cuuuse me for changing my mind. Maybe I realized that I really wanted to catch me some froggies, eh?”

She looks up at you and grins as she learns over to rest her head on your shoulder and links your arm with hers. “You’re such a goober, Karkat, oh my god.”

“Maybe.” You say, “and I may be grouchy, but I AM adorable.” What the actual fuck. Your brain must have over heated from the Indiana Jones face melting heat (and not her head on your shoulder) or something because that was _not_ you saying that. No.

Oh god. She’s pulling away from you and you a positive you fucked up. But instead of looking disgusted or some other, equally soul-crushing expression, she slips her hand to take yours. Before your heat-melted brain can register this, she pulls you down toward the pond you didn’t realize you had reached.

You spend the rest of the day trying to catch slimy little jumping creatures, having impromptu water fights, and laughing more than you think you’ve done in your entire life. You’re lying in the grass beside the pond and staring at the sunset-pink sky watching clouds when she turns to look at you.

“I had a great day, Karkat.” She says quietly, almost too soft for you to hear even with her so close you can feel her breath.

You grunt an affirmative. “I did too, Jade. I never thought frog hunting could be so much fun.”

She giggles and boops your nose, calling you a big softy before helping you stand up and walking home. She stands at your door and waves and you can’t deny it any longer. You want to kiss her so badly that you almost do, but a tiny, treacherous voice at the back of your brain whispers ‘ _she doesn’t like you like that. Do you want to ruin your friendship? I didn’t think so.’_  And you hate yourself a little more for falling for a girl that you had no right to love.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s autumn when you think you’re losing her.

It’s just tiny things, she gets this sad little look that has no right to be on her face when _Dave_ looks away; turning down invitations for group hang outs, especially if _he’s_ going to be there; and not even talking to you at all some days, for reasons unknown. You ask around to see if she’s doing this with anyone else, and it seems like she is the perfectly happy-go-lucky girl you met months ago. That hurts a little bit.

Now, you don’t hate Dave, you just don’t like the fact that Jade appears to _like_ him. The worst part is that you’ve known since day two that the blonde has it so bad for John that it is physically impairing to see him see him fail to just grab the goober’s hand and be done with it. And what’s worse (or better? It really depends on how you look at it. Anyway, they’re both idiots) is that, for _some reason,_ John thinks of you as a very trust worthy source (which you are, fuck if you’re going to tell people secrets. That shits disgusting.) so he has, in confidence, told you that he may or may not, actually not be the straight-as-a-prairie-highway kid he lead you all to believe. Which was fucking obvious, you are not an oblivious fucknard. Given this confession, and the way you’ve _seen_ him look at Strider (the only one who _hasn’t_ is the cool kid himself), you didn’t have to be Sherlock Holmes to put the pieces together.

Now, that wouldn’t be so bad (it’d be fucking _wonderful,_ those doofuses need to get together goddamn), if _fucking Jade_ wasn’t so insistent to both off them that they _need to tell the other._ And after her pep talks to either of them, she glances at you and gets that fucking sad puppy look and it breaks your heart every time.

You are so screwed.

It’s mid-November, not officially winter yet but it’s cold enough that you begin wear your scarf (that Rose so kindly made for your birthday. You don’t know why she made it for a June birthday, but whatever) daily, when Dave finally either fucks up, decides ‘fuck it, I’m going in’ or simply just needs to _do_ something. He smashes his face into John’s after school one day as you are exiting the school. John enthusiastically re-smashes his face when he pulls himself together and that’s that. Rose smirks, Kanaya hides a smile behind her hand, you roll your eyes, and Jade cheers.

Jade is all smiles and giggles and teasing as all of you continue on your way home. You burrow down into your scarf and sigh. Sometimes she’s ridiculous. She glances at you and when you catch her eye she immediately looks down. Okay. No. that’s gotta stop. You grab her arm and allow the two of you to fall back from the group.

You lock eye contact and search for something in her big green orbs to tell you _what the fuck is going on_ with her. But she just looks surprised. And maybe hopeful? But that’s dumb, because she would not want a fuck up like you to ask her out and you need to stop this train of thought because right no its bout _Jade’s_ feelings, not yours. You sigh and drop your gaze. “Look, Jade…” you begin and oh god you sound like a tool. “Do you like Dave? Is that why you’ve been acting kinda weird lately?”

She looks at you and brushes some stray hair behind her ear. Fuck that’s adorable. “Oh! Uh, no. sorry if I’ve been acting strange! I guess it’s just pretty busy before December and stuff and, uh…” she looks down and scuffs her shoes, “well there is someone that I like! He’d probably not even like me like that…But it isn’t Dave, so don’t worry!”

You scoff and, in a move of confidence (fuelled by the fact that you need to not stand still as your body processes the fact that, _oh shit she likes someone oh no,_ and melts down due to your heart maybe breaking), wrap your arm around her shoulders. “Ah, jade, he’d be a fool not to like you.” You say as you guide her to catch up with your friends.

“Aww, thanks Karkat! You big softy!” she says, and it hurts you a little. “I promise not to act weird anymore, okay!”

You grin at her and nod. “Good. I wouldn’t want my frog hunting buddy ditching me, now would I?”

“You sure wouldn’t!” she says as she slips away from your arm to skip in front of everyone and your heart sort of falls into your stomach and explodes into fiery pieces and you really just want to curl up on your bed and die because _she likes someone else._

You slip away into you house with a few grunted goodbye’s, see you tomorrow’s, yeah sure I’ll pester you later’s, okay bye’s. You are quite proud of yourself that you hold it together until you’re in your room and slipping down the closed door and then, _then,_ you break. You tried _so fucking hard_ to _not_ like her but she just wormed her way into your heart just to rip it out. You figure you probably deserve it in some way, being a ‘lucky’ foster kid you needed some sort of hardship and god, you _are_ trash. Literal trash. You, a grumpy foster kid that swears too much had no right in any universe to love a girl that could see the good in everyone, yet be able to beat the shit out of the, should the situation call for said smack-down. You don’t even bother telling yourself that you fell in love with her because somehow, saying you’re ‘in love’ with her makes it seem like you could stop. Like you could fall out of love and you really, _really,_ tried to stop. So you love her and that’s that and it isn’t changing anytime soon but it doesn’t matter because he likes someone and it sure as hell isn’t you (who would like you?) so you’ll just sit here and cry with your broken heart (even if she hasn’t  rejected you, she might as well have) thank you very much. So you cry until you fall asleep slouched against the door frame, waking to find a blanket around your shoulders and your stupid (no he isn’t stupid, shhhh, you love that thing) little crab stuffy you had when you were four tucked under your arm. You are very grateful for the warmth and the company, whispering your feelings to Cardel (shut up you were four and it sounded like ‘crab’) until you fall asleep again.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s a small interlude when you are Jade Harley.

You thought that Karkat was going to kiss you and you really wanted him too, though you knew it was stupid. It’s just! That boy! He drives you crazy! You have had a crush on him since (before, if you were being honest with yourself. He seemed interesting, okay!) Rose introduced the grumpy kid to you. And then, somewhere between spring and summer (when you talked to him every day and went on adventures and just spent time with him), you realized that you probably loved the douche.

Okay, so he isn’t a douche bag. He is actually a big sweetie pie and you just want to boop his noes (oh god you did do that didn’t you. Fuuuuuck) and kiss him (you didn’t do that, thank god). He hums love songs under his breath, and you don’t think he even knows he does it; he will argue until he passes out about human rights and how the ‘fucking politicians need to get their heads out of their asses and see that people are not objects. No questions’; he always has a scowl in public, but when he’s with friends (you are so happy to be in this group) he’ll smile the nicest, truest smile you could ever imagine; and you don’t think he knows that these qualities that are good, or that he even has them. You think he hates himself too much (who doesn’t, in the ‘why did I do that, I’m stupid’ way? But he hates himself in the way you hate broccoli or mosquitoes or that bitch who spreads rumours) and when you see himself scowl at the ground and mutter to himself the urges to boop him and kiss him and cuddle him and tell him that _nono he isn’t horrible he’s actually pretty perfect you love him so please, please stop hating yourself, Karkat._ But you don’t. And you probably never will. You’re okay with that! (Not really, it really sucks. Love sucks.)

But right now, right after you told him that you _liked someone_ and you saw how he kinda just drew in on himself slightly in the self-hating way he has, you feel pretty shitty. _Why_ would you say that? You probably made him angry that you hadn’t been taking to him. He probably thought that you had been ditching him (which you had) to talk to your crush (which you hadn’t because your crush is him, but you couldn’t tell him that. Not yet.). So instead you told him that you liked someone and now he probably hates you (you’re kidding yourself, Karkat is the most caring person you know, he probably couldn’t hate you if you tried, not that you’re going to) or at least thinks that he isn’t worth your time. Which is probably worse, actually, and much more probable.

So you are curled up on your bed with tear running down your face, hugging your squiddes to your chest, and trying to figure out how the hell you are going to keep your promise not to be distant anymore.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s winter when you tell her.

 

She looks just as amazing with her scarf around her neck and touque covering her ears as she did in her shorts and tank top in the summer. You’re walking around the park with her a discussing some random sports and whether or not it’s going to get warm anytime soon when she just stops and looks up.

You stare at her before asking what she’s doing. She turns to look at you and grins, breath fogging her glasses slightly. “The sky is pretty today, and the air is so crisp, I can almost feel spring coming!” she says as she looks up again. You look up too and find that the sky really is amazing, the early sunset tinting it shades of purple and blue.

You smile and watch her watch the sky and then she looks at you and giggles, breaking the moment by shoving you gently with her shoulder. “What are you looking at?”

“Ah, nothing”

“Weirdo” she whispers and shakes her head.

“Hey, Jade,” you say, and what the hell are you saying “I love you.” And your breath comes out muffled by your scarf, but there’s no doubt that she herd you. She stares at you wide-eyed for a fraction of a moment before pulling your scarf down and almost crushing your lips with hers. Your eyes go wide and what the hell why is she kissing you and your body sort of shuts down because _Jade Harley_ is _kissing you._

You’ve never actually kissed someone before so you don’t really know how this goes but you sort of purse your lips and move them against hers in little back-and-forth motions to let her know that _yes this is good yes excellent holy shit she is KISSING YOU._ It’s pretty sloppy, with her tiny overbite and your chapped lips but you feel her grinning against you and it’s still not real because _she started it and is enjoying it and woah what does this mean who gives a flying fuck, JADE is KISSING YOU._

She pulls away slightly to lean her forehead to yours and grins at you. You can’t he but grin back. “I love you, too” she whispers.

“Well that was an unexpected, yet fantastic turn of events for my slip of the tongue.”  You say, your breath steaming up her already foggy glasses.

“You’re an asshole, you know. You could have told me sooner!”

“Ah, yes. Me. Karkat Vantas, great expresser of feelings, champion of not getting hurt, master of words.” She slaps your arm and pulls you into a hug.

“You made me cry a couple times, you know, you buttface.”

“Me? Making _you_ , Jade Harley, cry?” you say, pulling away from her and putting your hands on your hips in the most mock-angry stature you can think of. “Of _course._ Since I avoided you with no real explanation for a few months, told you that I liked someone, and then proceeded to _literally skip away_ from you. Oh yes. I made _you_ cry.”

Her eyebrows go up and her face morphs into concern, dammit she needs to stop being adorable or you won’t be able to-oh, wait. She had kissed you. You should probably talk about that, too.

“You cried? When I said I didn’t like Dave?”

You huff and cross your arms across your chest, looking away from her. “No, I did not. I just allowed myself some self-pity time.”

She grins at you and boops your nose. “You are such a softy, Karkat.”

“I am not,” you say, but she’s leaning her head on your shoulder and you don’t even believe yourself. “Let’s start home?”

She links your arm with yours, and it mirrors your position from when you went frog hunting so many months ago. “Sooooooo, what now?” she asks after you walk a few blocks in silence.

“Uhhhm, yeah, I don’t know” you say, pulling your scarf up to your nose. “What do you want? I really don’t mind what we do with this,” you say as you gesture vaguely between the two of you. “I like hanging out and goofing around and watching movies with you and everyone, but I would really like to, uhm, you know, kiss you and stuff…” you trial off and look down uncomfortably.

She tightens her grip on your arm and somehow squishes closer to you. “Yeah! I like that plan! And we can also to movies by ourselves too and have sloppy make outs in the back!” You blush and she giggles. “Or watch the movie, I guess?”

“We’ll have to see how the movie is, and then make a decision on whether we watch it or not.” Smooth. You’re smiling like an idiot and you can’t bring yourself to care. “So, does this mean we’re dating?” you ask, looking sideways at her.

She grins and nods vigorously, “yeah! I-I mean, if that’s what you want, yeah.”

“Oh, totally. Yes. Fuck, yes. Jade I am so down for dating you, you have no idea.” you say, and you stopped caring about how stupid you sound around the time that Jade started fiddling with your fingers as you walked.

“Sweet! Oh, we’re already at my house. Uhm, so do you want to see a movie on Saturday or something?”

You slip out of her grip and peck her on the cheek, “I’ll pick you up around four?”

She flushes, either from cold or your kiss (woah, you are going to have to do _that_ more often), and nods. She slips in the door, “see you then!”

You can’t help grinning beneath your scarf as you walk the few blocks to your house, thinking about how you are probably the luckiest fuckup the world will ever know. You are perfectly okay with that.

 

* * *

 

 

It’s a year since you met her when she is yours and you are finally hers.

**Author's Note:**

> in case you were wondering 40C is 104 Fahrenheit. ha i should have been writing a social paper when I finished this, oops. tell me what you think! write a comment or hit me up on my tumblr (findafight) I don't bite!
> 
> ...I just realized i don't have any chat logs in this fic oh my.


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